Women in positions of leadership. Women out front taking charge. Women in key governmental positions. And Ms. doesn't see it as something positive that they can put in their magazine?
Needless to say, this decision is causing quite a bit of stir, NEGATIVE stir, probably more than RUNNING the ad would have caused.
From The Volokh Conspiracy:
The message, I take it, is pretty clear — "Feminists should like the way women are treated in Israeli life," coupled with the pretty strong implication of "... and look how favorably it compares on this score to Israel's enemies." Yet this is what the American Jewish Congress reports happened when the ad was submitted to Ms. magazine:
When Director of AJCongress’ Commission for Women’s Empowerment Harriet Kurlander tried to place the ad, she was told that publishing the ad “will set off a firestorm” and that “there are very strong opinions” on the subject -− the subject presumably being whether or not one can say anything positive about Israel. Ms. Magazine publisher Eleanor Smeal failed to respond to a signed-for certified letter with a copy of the ad as well as numerous calls by Mr. Gordon over a period of weeks.
A Ms. Magazine representative, Susie Gilligan, whom the Ms. Magazine masthead lists under the publisher’s office, told Ms. Kurlander that the magazine “would love to have an ad from you on women’s empowerment, or reproductive freedom, but not on this.” Ms. Gilligan failed to elaborate what “this” is....
Reproductive freedom. Does that translate into abortion? More:
Ms. Magazine has a long record of publishing advertisements rallying readers to support reproductive choice; opposing the Religious Right; highlighting the fragility of the pro-Roe v. Wade majority on the Supreme Court; charging that “Pat Robertson and his Religious Right cohorts don’t like individual freedom;” announcing support for the “struggle for freedom and human rights;” opposing the Bush administration’s campaign to fill federal courts with judges who “will reverse decades of progress on reproductive rights and privacy, civil rights, religious liberty, environmental protection and so much more;” as well as accusing the Bush administration of being “bent on rewarding big corporations and the rich, turning back the clock on women’s rights and civil rights, and promoting a U.S. empire abroad.”
“This flagship publication of the American women’s empowerment movement publishes ads that are controversial in the general culture but not so among its readership,” Ms. Kurlander said. “Obviously, Ms. believes our ad would enflame a significant portion of their readers.”
So it's a POLITICAL thing, then. HMMMMMMMMMM. More:
Mr. Gordon added, “What really amazes me is that just recently, in their Winter 2007 issue, Ms. ran a cover story with a picture of Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi with the heading in big letters: “This is What a Speaker Looks Like.” While Ms. has every reason to be proud of Speaker Pelosi and her accomplishments, as are we, the only discernable difference between Speaker Pelosi and Speaker Itzik apparently is that Speaker Pelosi is not Israeli.”
Well ISN'T that special. Nancy Pelosi can grace Ms. magazine and get big letters for her plastic molded face as she stands before Congress and fails to demonstrate any sort of leadership at all, but the women of Israel who are in similar positions somehow DON'T measure up to the HIGH standards of Speaker Pelosi and Ms. magazine.
Maybe they should have included something along THIS line and Ms. would have found it more acceptable:
One can only conclude that Ms. magazine is showing their anti-semitic sentiments. This is also the opinion of the American Jewish Counsel:
“What other conclusion can we reach,” asked Richard Gordon, President of AJCongress, “except that the publishers − and if the publishers are right, a significant number of Ms. Magazine readers − are so hostile to Israel that they do not even want to see an ad that says something positive about Israel?”
Wake Up America's very own Spree has also jumped into the fray. The following is her email to Ms. magazine in regards to their blatantly anti-semitic stand:
This story is becoming hot and this email as well the original story and PDF will be linked at my blog as dozens of others, as well as already being linked to around the blogosphere and the media, is about to become even hotter for MS Magazine.
Your refusal to print this ad, stinks of Anti-Semitism and as a Jewish American woman, I will be printing all your contact information for other Americans that despise Anti-Semitism to be contacting you about your apparent disregard for a legitimate ad with no reasonable explaination other than "there are very strong opinions" on the subject".
What subject praytell? The fact that three high powered positions in Israel are held by women?
Is that not something YOU are a proponent of?
Others already speaking on this subject and we have all JUST gotten started are:
PowerLine, Gateway Pundit, Volokh, PR Newswire , Blog for All and Yourish.com.
Mine is being written now if you would like your response included, I will add it in, if it comes after I hit publish, i will consider adding it as an update.
Respectfully,
Susan Duclos
Owner and Editor of Wake Up America Blog.
Want to have a say of your own to Ms. Magazine? Well, folks, I'm here to help with that. The following links can take you to Ms. or will allow you to email them yourself and LET THEM KNOW that this isn't going unnoticed. If you wish for us to include your comments to them here on our site, feel free to email with a forward of your message, and if they respond to you, forward us that and we'll post it as an update as well, or leave them as comments to the article.
http://www.msmagazine.com/contact.asp
mkort@msmagazine.com
jstites@msmagazine.com
mburk@msmagazine.com
AND last but certainly not LEAST...
Queries/ Ms . magazine
433 South Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills , CA 90212
Standing on the side of Justice,
Once and Always, an American Fighting Man
[Update] One of our contributors, Roger Gardner, has also written a letter to Ms Magazine as well as doing his own piece on Radarsite and Faultline USA:
[Update] IHBAUM, via email sent me this, which was CC'd to mkort@msmagazine.com as well.
Continue to leave your letters in the comment section or forward them to me and I will continue to add them as updates.
.
Dear Ms. Kort --
Being a 70 year old male, I have not had occasion to read Ms. lately, although I have certainly heard of it. Today, however, I heard about Ms. in a somewhat different and quite disturbing context. I read several reports in well-known and respected conservative blogs about your refusal to run the Israeli ad in question. Your excuses for refusing to publish this pro-Israeli women's ad come off at best as disingenuous, at worst as downright deceptive.
Never before in recent history have women's rights been so blatantly and brutally suppressed and trampled on as they are being right this moment in the Arab/Muslim cultures of the Middle East. The only exception to this pervasive onslaught against women's equality is the tiny brave state of Israel. If ever women's advocates, such as Ms. and other such publications and organizations, who purport to be fighting for the rights of women, were needed in this great civilizational battle the time is now.
But where are you? Where are those powerful voices of protest that were so vocal and pervasive all during the sixties and seventies? Where are all those multitudinous angry demonstrations and those media-savvy bra-burnings now? Where are you now that we, the world, need you most?
The battle rages on and you are AWOL. And your silence is deafening. Now more than ever, when American women need to speak up on behalf of their downtrodden Muslim sisters around the world -- and even here in the United States -- not only do you choose to remain silent on the sidelines, you actually race to support the cause of our enemies. This kind of self-centered pettiness is totally incomprehensible to me -- and to many other rational and disgusted citizens across this country.
Is your political hatred of Bush and his foreign policies so great, so blinding, that it even causes you to turn against those very women for whom you claim to be speaking? How can you justify this cowardly betrayal of your constituents and your country?
If there is any hope at all of bringing about some sea change in that brutal male-dominant culture of the Middle East, it lies with Israel, and with your Muslim sisters and in their ability to stand up and fight against this wicked Islamic oppression. But they need your help. They need the help and support of women's orgs like yours. Yet, for the sake of making some misguided liberal political statements -- or perhaps expressing some not-so-subtle anti-semitism -- you have dishonored your mission and given aid and comfort to our enemies.
Have you no shame?
I intend to publish this email in the form of an article which I will then disseminate to as many websites as possible. If you reply with something other than your previous meaningless obfuscations, I will be happy to publish your response as well.
Sincerely,
Roger W. Gardner
Radarsite
http://radarsite.blogspot.com/
[Update] IHBAUM, via email sent me this, which was CC'd to mkort@msmagazine.com as well.
Roger Gardner's letter says it all. I can't conceive of a more disingenuous, and therefore reprehensible, action on the part of this publication. Hypocrisy, Ms. is thy name -- how the mighty have fallen.
Continue to leave your letters in the comment section or forward them to me and I will continue to add them as updates.
.